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“Flower Drum Song” Returns to Northern CaliforniaThe Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California and CAPITAL team up to present “Flower Drum Song” in Sacramento August 14, 2003
There will be two shows, a 2:00pm matinee and an 8:00pm evening show. There will also be a very special reception from 5:00 pm to 7:00pm, which will salute Flower Drum Song and David Henry Hwang and the nationally touring cast, along with many special surprise guests. David Henry Hwang’s Broadway revival of Flower Drum Song tells the story of Mei-li, a young woman who flees to America in the late 1950s when her father, a Chinese opera master, falls under persecution from the Communist government. Arriving in San Francisco, she finds work in a run-down Chinese opera house where the patriarch, Master Wang, struggles to keep old traditions alive, while his American-born son, Ta, dreams of converting the space into a Western-style nightclub. Together with a showgirl and her fast-talking agent, Ta realizes his dream when the old theatre becomes a popular new nightspot, Club Chop Suey. In the whirlwind that follows, Mei-li finds herself falling in love, while the characters grapple with the joys and the challenges of life in the new world. This funny and moving story explores what it means to be an American. This revival about Chinese immigrants assimilating into American life circa 1960 — sweetened by such Rodgers & Hammerstein tunes as "Love, Look Away," "Sunday", “Fan Tan Fanny” and "I Enjoy Being a Girl", opened Oct. 17, 2002, at the Virginia Theatre and starred Tony award winning Lea Salonga. David Henry Hwang the only Asian American Tony award-winning playwright has succeeded in revitalizing Flower Drum Song for a whole new generation. In 1996, after seeing a new version of the King and I on Broadway, Hwang decided to write the book that Oscar Hammerstein would have written, had he been Asian American. Bestowed the rights by the Rodgers and Hammerstein powers-that-be, and with the blessings of C.Y. Lee, author of the novel The Flower Drum Song, Hwang collaborated with director/choreographer Robert Longbottom and musical director David Chase to bring the revised musical to Broadway. "Flower Drum Song, I would argue is the first Chinese American novel to be published by an established publishing house, [and] certainly the first Chinese American novel to be on the best-seller list," says Hwang. "Flower Drum Song has been a landmark for Asian Americans in each of its incarnations - the novel, the Broadway musical was the first to feature and star Asian Americans, and the movie was the first Hollywood movie to do so." The original Flower Drum Song opened on Broadway in 1958, with the legendary song & dance man Gene Kelly — whose bio in the signature "Who's Who in the Cast" mentions his theatrical ambitions — making his Broadway directorial debut with Rodgers and Hammerstein's Flower Drum Song. The cast of the show featured an all-Asian ensemble and headliners including Miyoshi Umeki, Ed Kenney, Keye Luke, Arabella Hong and Pat Suzuki. The Sacramento showing of Flower Drum Song marks the first return of the play to Northern California since its original national tour in 1960. The Sacramento showing of Flower Drum Song is the only scheduled show in California. Ticket prices are $110 for the 2:00pm matinee show and $115 for the 8:00pm evening show. The price includes the reception from 5:00 to 7:00pm. Limited tickets are available for both shows. Bus service from San Francisco is available for the matinee show only. Online tickets are available at tix.com. For more information, please call the JCCCNC at (415) 567-5505. The play will be at the Sacramento Convention Center Community
Theater located at 1301 L About the JCCCNCEnvisioned by the Japanese American community, JCCCNC will be an everlasting foundation of our Japanese American ancestry, cultural heritage, histories and traditions. The JCCCNC strives to meet the evolving needs of the Japanese American community through programs, affordable services and facility usage. The JCCCNC is a non-profit community center based in San Francisco. For more information, please contact: Paul Osaki, Executive Director |
SAN
FRANCISCO (August 14, 2003) - On Saturday, November 15, 2003, the
Japanese Cultural & Community Center of Northern California
(JCCCNC) and Council of Asian Pacific Islanders Together for Advocacy
and Leadership (CAPITAL) will team up to co-host The Broadway Series
of David Henry Wang’s musical broadway hit Flower Drum
Song in Sacramento, CA.